Innovate Church Conference

One thing I love about LU:


We woke up one morning in April and this picture was outside our door. Someone used chalk graffiti to inspire others to release tension and anxiety in the most stress-filled time in the year. Seriously? Brilliant! Creative justice at work in the hands of a college student. We could change the world.

Another I love, today I'm at Innovate Church Conference at TRBC and I'm getting to hear Francis Chan! If I could take more time off work today I'd hear Ed Stetzer too, but most likely he'll tweet most of what he's going to say anyway.

Both positive and negative, Lynchburg, VA is a spiritual incubator. For now, it's positive.

It's Been Awhile, This is Fitting

While trying to come up with a good reason why we haven't posted on our blog since March, I came across this video from Brian McLaren through another blogger:



This video reminds me of 3 things:
1. I remember when a girl at Greenfield told me that God sending Jesus to die for our sins sounded like child abuse. I had no answer.
2. I cannot wait to see my nephews next week in Kentucky for our family camping trip. Little boys like this are cute, no matter what.
3. Our God is greatly mysterious and in that mysteriousness He is good. Zapping or not.

Reasons We Love Virginia

We took a small hike on Sunday afternoon and stumbled on these sites. These pictures represent reasons that we love Virginia.

Good education:

Fun people to be with:

Beautiful scenery (isn't Rachel a great photographer?):

Sleeping beauties:

Obstacles to overcome:

Women that work out:

Crabtree Falls, Sunday. Good times. If you visit, we'll take you on a hike. A great hike.

if you could remember...

Rachel said to me on our snow day, "Hey, do you want to go Shara's to see Kaleb play in the snow?" I wasn't too excited about it, but I said, "Yeah, let's do it." I wish I had seen this coming...




Shara taught him how to eat it and he wasn't concerned with anything else. He just kept eating it, sitting in it and eating it. They tried to make create a snow angel... didn't work. He just kept doing this:

travel

World travelers we are not. But, we'd like to get out more often. People are our reasons for escape.

Last weekend: Chicago, IL
This weekend: Statesville, NC
Next weekend: Lynchburg, VA
28th weekend: Joshua's Men Retreat (???)

-then-

April! Wow, things are looking forward right now but a bit stressful. I think Rach and I will keep sane if we keep our friends and families close.

Future trips:
June '09: Kentucky
July '09: Anniversary (???)
October '09: Connecticut

So, let's try an experiment. After you read this post call Rachel or me and tell your favorite city to visit and why... Ready, go, call, now!

a tremendous outlook on the Evangelical

I am no theological scholar by trade, but a reader in general. My hope swells when I read things like this by Mark Galli:

"What I will do, to my dying day, is work with anyone who knows he was lost but now is found, whose Bible is worn because she repeatedly looks there for God to speak, who finds the Cross the most meaningful of symbols, for whom the Resurrection is not just a doctrine but a power, and who wants nothing more than to find new and creative ways to share the evangel of Jesus in word and deed. I'll work with these people no matter what scholars decide to call them."

Another great paragraph from this article:

"One of those dynamics is that evangelicals on the ground, in our better moments at least, care less about our "movement" and more about "the evangel," the Good News of Jesus Christ. If the constellations of individuals and groups that have constituted the cultural shape of evangelicalism were to disappear, most of us would quickly move on. Because we know that would hardly signal the end of evangelicalism."

Q: is this possible in a day of market branding and celebrity poster children defining themselves more by the brands they follow than the values they hold? (Example: "Oh, that's the guy that rides the bike, right? Isn't he the one with the yellow shoes that beat cancer in order to win some competition seven times?" Brands: LiveStrong, Cancer Survivor, and Tour de France. Values Ignored: divorce, integrity in sports, and right speaking.)

Your thoughts?

Chicago and Uncertainty

It appears that there has been a lot of uncertainty already in this trip to the Midwest. This appearance has ruminated from my gut and continues to cut at my confidence the closer we get to Monday.

We're currently planning on visiting the campus of a school here in Chicago to look at their Rhetoric and Public Culture program. Rachel and I have discussed taking our interest in university life to the next level and pursuing a PhD that would allow us to teach world-round, hopefully. My uncertainty is shooting so high that the sky might reject my ammunition and drop it back on my head. In a dizzy whirlwind of rejection I'd then only be left trying to pick up pieces and make sense of what does not. I guess that's faith.

Pray for us this weekend and in the coming weeks about how we're going to address our next steps. Our discussion in the airport yesterday concluded with a resolve something like this: We just want to put our full selves into the next adventure as if it is the adventure we are going to be defined by for the rest of our lives, and we don't want to start something in anticipation of starting the next thing shortly after that. We want to be all in and put all of our creative efforts into accomplishing that thing.

Onward into the unknown. This feeling now makes me think of Moses compared to the people of Israel in Exodus 20:18-21:
"Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off and said to Moses, 'You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die.' Moses said to the people, 'Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin.' The people stood far off, while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was."

Onward to thick darkness, albeit pretty dark.

I'm worse than my sister

This post is entitled such because it is 11:29AM and I have yet to work today. Granted, it is a Monday and we do have a snow day today, as proof of the following picture, but I have a lot of work to do and I have done none:


This is my current working condition with Master Rachel in pajamas over on the couch and myself in that vacant spot on the loveseat typing on that there computer. The audio in the background would have students screaming and joyously yelling outside our window sliding on cafeteria trays and any kind of makeshift toboggan.


(pause) We just had a friend from Florida knock on our door because she was freezing while sledding. She had those little cotton gloves and rain boots on her feet. Rachel loaned her ski gloves with hand warmer inserts and a pair of wool socks. We're going to make great parents! The look of excitement on our snow day:


Just in case you think Virginians are weak sauce, check out this picture with the ice on our window and the following one with the 10 inches of snow next to the side walks. This is out our front window. Note the large evergreen in our front yard and the smaller evergreens bowing to one another on the right side. The trees in the back also look pristine adorned with their new ice garbs:



We really do enjoy our home. Another "plow" just drove by on this sidewalk. They do a good job on the sidewalks, if only we could talk them into salting the stairs.

a birthday plate

Rachel had a really amazing birthday idea back in November for me. We went to a place called All Fired Up in Lynchburg. Many of you probably have a place like this in your local towns, but ours plays a ridiculous Oldies radio station and is not what we consider to be the most comfortable creative environment. However, we were still able to produce this:


It's a birthday plate! For whomever to use on their birthday. This project in all took us 3 trips out to Boonesboro and 5 cups of coffee (there's a Starbucks just around the corner) just to finish it. But, there were 4 different dates involved (one to pick-up the plate and another stop at the Starbucks), so it was a (or four) relatively inexpensive ($13 plate) date idea! Here's the back:



SIDE NOTE: Every family has traditions. Our family had a lot of unique ones, Rachel's had a lot of spontaneous ones.

Perhaps Melissa remembers this. We used to have a record player that would play a special birthday record every time it was our birthday. The records we special and had our name in the song. I think that picture had a man riding a rocket or a crescent moon on the front, probably with stardust flying off the rear of his vessel. I really like the song. It went something like this, "Hey Kevin, it's your birthday... [enter other rhyming text here]"

Traditions... hmm. After years of using this plate, I have a feeling that our kids will try to hide or shatter it. We love it, it's better than we had in mind when we started. We're starting traditions early in the Mahan home.

Guess what Kaleb's thinking

I just stumbled on these pictures today and thought that I'd share them with you. Rachel likes to pretend to say what Kaleb is thinking. Any ideas about what he's thinking here:


How about this one. Comment on this post with your best caption and we'll come up with a grand prize. That means you have a 25% chance of winning between all 4 of our readers!

Our Three Nephews

Last week we had the best time with Kevin's parents, sister, and nephews! My sister made it over a few times so we ended up seeing all three of our nephews in one place. They loved each other. I loved thinking of what was going through there minds at different moments, one of my favorites being playing hide and seek with Jayce. He was tense and anxiuos as Unlce Kevin was trying to find us and "here he is!" seemed constantly on the tip of his tongue. During the encounters when Kaleb would crawl up to Jayce and try to climb on him we were pretty sure Kaleb was saying in his mind, "I want to eat your face," but instead said "aww, Jayce he wants to be friends with you!"

Since our pictures were fewer and of lower quality, is it cheating to say, check out my sister-in-law's blog for a picture recap of the weekend? Okay, I said it...take a look.

a bad food idea

Last night at The Rot, our dining facility at LU, Rachel and I had one of those "What?!" kind of moments. First of all, our main dining facility looks like this:


No, that's not us.

We walked into The Rot and found something different in the cheeseburger/grill cheese line. We found "S'more Quesadillas." Seriously. Someone in the back had the idea to take the extra tortillas shells, lather them in butter - twice - then spread approximately 0.3 ounces of marshmallow and 0.4 ounces of chocolate paste with a smidgen of crumbled graham cracker to top it off. Slide that puppy through the pizza oven and you've got a "S'more Quesadilla." Unreal. We fell for it.

One happy customer said, "Usually this would have been a good idea, but I think they put sea salt on the outside."

Against our better judgment, Rachel and I each took one out of the hot window. Mine was gone by my third bite of pollock. Rachel daintly ignored my gagging and gasping to finish the guts of the treat without subcombing to the over buttered edges of crips quesadilla.

This may sound like a negative post, but it wasn't all that bad of an evening. We ended up getting our friend Grace one before we left, and Rachel said, "Your gonna like this." :)

Our Saturday mornings...

If you've heard us talk about CampusSERVE on Saturday mornings and want a better glimpse, you can click on the link to see our new CampusSERVE blog. Kevin worked for hours on it! As his wife and a graphic desinger I am so proud of him...not to mention that I couldn't be more thankful for a husband who pours himself into the leaders and this community.

Kaleb and his family are back in town!

We are so excited to have my sister, brother-in-law, and little nephew back in town. This post is especially to fulfill the request of Uncle Nate. They were all three ready for some sleep after about a 25 hour trip. They said Kaleb did really well!

Kaleb is a pro at moving these days.

I love to stlye his hair!

our first - or second - house

Shortly after getting married, Rachel and I temporarily moved into what is called "East Campus" at Liberty:



Knowing that we would move to our second house shortly after we moved into this one, we didn't settle in too much. Our second house is what follows here:

our front door

from the inside

living room 1

living room 2

living room 3

kitchen 1

kitchen 2

dining room

hallway

prayer room

spare bedroom

office 1

office 2

master bedroom 1

master bedroom 2

master bedroom 3

our free blessings

what keeps us sane

I hope you've enjoyed a short visual tour of our second home. Rachel and I are also projecting that we may have many homes in our lifetime, so we're taking a picture in front of each one. One day we'll create a collage of all the wonderful "front step" pictures of us unconventional homes. There's no telling where we'll be next. Perhaps here:

Rachel Marie

I would like to take this moment to brag on my wife. If I had pictures it would make this post more entertaining, but my words will have to do for now:

In the beautiful month of late-January a cold wind begins to blow through the halls of Liberty University and it enlivens the hearts of hundreds of would-be Resident Assistant applicants. Some envision fame and glory, other ministry and enhanced responsibility. The genuine ones are refreshing and those that are faking it soon crumble in the daunting task of staying alert through little rest and intense sessions.

At the core of the RA selection process are the beautiful people that faithfully serve as Resident Directors. The RDs are full-time paid staff that have the job of... whatever their boss deems important that week on top of the responsibilities already listed in their job description which may or may not consist of anything except the phrase, "Whatever needs to be done to keep the Pax Liberti."

To describe her job a little better, last week Rachel dealt with mice on a couple of her halls. Mice, simple creatures, hard problem. It's cold and their house (an old basketball court) was recently destroyed. They found refuge in the adjacent dorm and have since been creeping around at night through the ceilings of the building. Who gets involved in a mice problem? Dads that care about their little girls. Moms that are grossed out by the thought of it. Housing that is in charge of the safety of the building. Pet Control with their little devious poison boxes. Resident Assistants that must hear the screaming at night. Office of Student Leadership that has to administrate taking care of the issue. Female students that want to bait the mice by using peanut butter on a spoon because they haven't seen them in a couple of days. And, my lovely wife keeping the orchestra all singing in perfect harmony as the mice go marching on oblivious to their obvious annoyance.

RA selection has been on hold in this story while dealing with the mice, but in Rachel's life they were simultaneous instances. Mice be gone. Rats have come (Resident Assistants in Training was the older, less politically correct name of RA Applicants).

Every applicant has multiple RDs that see them for a brief time and evaluate their performance. Rachel is a "home" RD to the girls on her halls, a "retreat" RD to the girls she had this weekend, and a "host" RD to the girls she'll have this week. All decisions are made mid-February after this confusion is complete and all applicants have successfully fallen behind on all classwork and social gatherings.

Rachel was required to work 27+ hours from Friday morning to Saturday night this past weekend. After a Sunday filled with a friend's birthday party, Super Bowl party, and typing up all comments made during those 27 hours, Rachel is back at it again today in RD meeting. I came home from lunch today to see her pouring over her notes typing frantically as if she writing The Shack 2. She's incredible making this all work, but this was only what was required of her.

This is where I really get to brag. Not only is my wife gladly doing all the above mentioned work, lovingly serving me as an insecure husband, serving with CampusSERVE, and every thing else involved, but she has also tried to go above and beyond that. She e-mailed every girl in her "retreat" and "host" week groups to see if they would sit down one-on-one with her for a cup of joe and a get to know. Above and beyond. She's gotten to see their individual personalities upfront and person without having to only see it in the scheduled times of the crucible.

Such a small token of genuine love for people is not a small task. Balancing her schedule would take a tandem of administrative assistants, but she does it all herself. She recently turned down the chance of hiring a personal assistant against my support. We've been toying around with getting her an intern or at least a stress ball! My wife deserves an award. I'm not sure which one, probably all of them.

Here's the end of the story. The last two years I've received calls from Rachel after the war room. Neither of them have been positive. The war room - my term - is like this (I'm struggling to come up with a good metaphor). People with diverse opinions and obvious agendas deciding who will and who will not receive thousands of dollars in scholarship and priceless responsibility. When these women get together and decide, it's a fight for what each person believes. Rachel is a lover... not a fighter. She has for two years been stepped on, disregarded, and insulted in the process of the war room. She's had some victories too and really made a good push for what she believes. Her response this year? Meeting with more applicants, taking more of her precious time, ignoring the mice for these precious r.a.t.s. She's absolutely amazing. Her comment to me went something like this, "I'm not even sure if my opinion will count, but I just wanted to get to know these girls outside of that structured time." Instead of being embittered, she has taken even more steps to set herself apart.

I think my wife is Jesus sometimes, but then she puts her cold hands on my bare skin and she makes me want to curse. Jesus wouldn't do that!

Who Are You?

I think Everyone needs to try and figure this question out at some point, or multiple points, in their life. Well, today I was given the task to write an online profile for myself explaining who I am. The following is who I think I am today (and however long the web profile stays unaltered):

Kevin P. Mahan
Internship Coordinator,
Employer Relations

As the internship coordinator in the LU Career Center I have the privilege of interacting with over a thousand students every year interested in adding experience to their education. Walk-ins, talkers, dreamers, pessimists, procrastinators, and world-changers are all welcome in visit my office. Each person has a valuable role to play and my role is to help students get experience in their future careers before they become regretful and lost graduates in a quick and disappointing career change.

My wife, Rachel, and I are newlyweds for life looking forward to changes and surprises as God blesses us with them. We believe that our current vocation will always remain the same, but our locations may change. Our vocation is being a consistent part of the local and global Kingdom of God. We love to support the global mission and participate in the local mission by leading CampusSERVE through LU in various parts of Lynchburg. We've never had a dull day of marriage, but we invite the common days as a calm blessing.

I earned a B.S. in Speech and an M.A. in Religious Rhetoric from Liberty University in 2006 & 2008, respectively. Rachel completed her B.S. in Graphic Design in 2005 and her M.A. in Student Ministries in 2008. We love this university and are falling in love with this dynamic city because of our love for its people. We officially call ourselves Lynchburgians and gladly pay 11.5% food tax to live in this city, although we do miss our hometowns in Gingellville, Michigan and Statesville, North Carolina.

For fun I strategize intramural basketball and soccer in my mind as I fall asleep after an evening of Tecmo Super Bowl, Dostoevsky, and half-caf coffee. My wife is an avid drinker of all things coffee/espresso and uses her incredible wit to wax candidly on our new blog.

CampusSERVE

We wear a lot of hats. Rachel is a graphic designing, professional painting, property managing, Resident Directing, CampusSERVER. I am a formerly professing, internship guiding, property managing, CampusSERVER. Of the many things we are proud of doing, most are volunteer. We've seen the beautiful things that can happen through our lives as we volunteer beyond our expected abilities.

God has us in a peculiar place right now. We love what we get paid to do, but cherish the moments when we are able to serve people. I'm the director of CampusSERVE at Liberty and Rachel is the Assistant to the Director of CampusSERVE at Liberty. We're an organization supported by Thomas Road Baptist Church and the Office of Spiritual Programs at Liberty. Rachel and I do administrative duties. That means tonight we are going to Wal-mart and buying cookies for 200, cups, chalk, sports equipment, first aids, etc. for this upcoming semester. It also means that we train and lead 23 amazing college students to lead other college students to do more than the 25 of us could do. We've had on average 210 student last semester. We've watched our students grow beyond their expected abilities, and we've seen ourselves become warn out every Saturday afternoon. Worth it.

Here is an article in the Liberty Journal [a big deal outside LU, but not as important at LU] that we had posted recently. You'll notice the name Candace Davey. The ironic thing is that she's the little sister of Ben Davey who was my oft roommate and co-coach at On Goal the first summer I worked with Tom & Rog. Small world. Big God.

Can a girl just be sick for a day?

I was talking to one of my friends who is also young and married with no kids yesterday and I realized that people lack sympathy for 'us' (young married women) who come down with an 'unknown' sickness. Here's an example on a conversation:

Curious Conversationalist: Hey, I heard you wer sick yesterday. Are you feeling better?
Young Married Woman: Yeah, much better today thanks.
Curious Conversationalist: What was wrong?
Young Married Woman: I'm not sure, I was just puking a lot...maybe a slight fever. It was horrible.
Curious Conversationalist: Hmmmm (and they smile, wink, or just nod as if they're happy they you couldn't eat anything for a day for fear of seeing it twice!)

What if I end up having the Bubonic Plague or something? If your curiousity is sparked when you hear of or are in conversation with a nice young married woman near you, please be courteous and have a little sympathy! She's probably not having symptoms of pregnancy 99% of the time. That's all. Thanks!

Kev's Work Posse

Here is my new work peoples. This is our Tacky Christmas Sweater day.

From L to R: Kevin (Internship Coordinator), Melinda (Career Counselor), Carrie (Director & boss), Melanie (Project Assistant), Tracey (Office Manager), Nicole (Career Services Coordinator), Tara (Management), Bryan (Washington Fellowship Recruiter - he's actually a lot happier in person), Brittney (Washington Fellowship Placement Coordinator).

Our titles are a mouthful, but they are certainly a fun bunch to work with at LU. Every day I get up and walk to work I'm (1) thankful for a job right now and (2) incredibly thankful for such a brilliant cast of characters to work along side. It's like everyday is a concoction of creative service tailor made to produce humor.

Honeymoon

We went to Maine for our Honeymoon. It was even better than expected! Located on an island and in Acadia National Park, Bar Harbor had a small town feel with quaint restaurants and shops. We took advantage of the great hiking trails the park had to offer and took a 4-hour kayaking adventure...the best! We opted to stay and B&Bs and we would highly recommend them, when possible over hotels. How can you beat a breakfast like this included with your stay? This one was called Nonesuch Farms B&B in Bangor, ME...about an hour from Bar Harbor.

Bangor had a saltwater marshwalk nearby that was peaceful and cool to see...

Here we are by the Penobscot River after eating at Salty Dogs. The restaurant had a fun feel to it, but they served Kevin a salad with about 3 pieces of lettuce, 2 olives, a couple slabs of cheese, and a drizzle of dressing. The waitress should have looked at him and said, "what you are about to order probably won't be sufficient for your dinner," but she was oblivious to anything besides getting our order and handing us the bill.

This is the front of Nonesuch Farm B&B. Great place AND wonderful hosts.

Oh look, a big black poodle. We asked this lady if we could get a picture with her dog and she was honored. We told her that black poodles were, oddly enough, somewhat significant to our engagement story. I will NEVER live it down so I must embrace it!

And here we have the ever so unique Bass Cottage Inn. Very historic. Lovely afternoon/hostess hostess who was French Canadian who became her best friend...although she probably has thousands across the globe. Breakfast (pause) like we have never seen or tasted before.
(the breakfast dining room)

Our breafast. First course (a breakfast has courses?!), homemade muffins and fruit kabobs (seriously! kabobs for breakfast?!) placed on plates drizzled with yogurt.

After 2 hours he was a pro. Look at those guns!

This is me waiting while our guide helped the family with 10-year-old Ry-Ry back into their kayaks for the 2 hour trip back to the harbor. Oh Ry-Ry (short for Ryan), fond memories...probably never did something as active as kayaking in his entire 10-years. I think his mom, who was in the tandem kayak with him, probably had jelly arms for days following.

Here we are at the start of the Beeshive trail.

We passed a couple on the way up who were on their way back down telling us that it was too windy. The "hiking trail"/wall had places where you had to climb rocks and area where it was so steep that they bolted ladders and handles into the rock hang onto.

This is after our fancy dinner night. We went to Cabana...gourmet. The only "chain" establishment we saw on the whole island was out the picture window across from Cabana, it was an Exxon station. Our wonderful best friend back at the B&B wanted to take our picture. She always asked about our day and we'd tell her about our adventures.

I can't remember the name of this trail, but it was a great hike parlty directing us along/through a creek bed. It end at a cave where, on the other side, we put our hammock over the creek. Picturesque.

Our lobster meal! It was on a pier, steamer at the front door for the lobster - nice greeting, had a utility sink to wash the green insides off after breaking the tail off before embarking on the eating part. By the way, fried clams (maybe they were steamed) do not look like the curly fry looking ones that you may be accustomed to eating at Red Lobster. We had to call our waitress back to the table for a demo on how to tackle eating them. We also asked the people a couple tables over what to do when it came to eating the lobster too. They were kind enough to take our picture.

Last day. You kinda hate to say goodbye to such a beautiful place...